Fry the Coop (Tinley Park) — Restaurant in Bremen Township

FINALLY... a restaurant that DOES NOT fry in any kind of vegetable oil!! Nope, they fry in 100% beef tallow... as everyone should!

I try very hard to not consume any type of vegetable or seed oil as these are the worse a human can put in their body. This makes dinning out extremely difficult, as this is what the industry opts for... mostly to increase the bottom line. But not Fry the Coop, no!! Verified 100% rendered beef fat only, in their fryers. And the way traditional fried chicken should be done. The French fries are done like traditional Belgium frites... fresh cut, soaked, dried and double fried in TALLOW. SO crispy! Even most of the high-end restaurants touting Belgium frites in tallow, cheat and fry once in vegetable oil... rules those out for me!

The no vegetable/seed oil is what made me make the visit. I'll admit I was skeptical about the quality of chicken they would use, but was so pleasantly surprised when I found out it's all local farm sourced healthily raised chickens. And the outcome... plump, fresh tasting white meat chicken breast sandwiches and nuggets made from white chicken meat... NOT chicken meal! And neither the chicken, nor the fries were at all greasy. Oh and the bun... fresh made, toasted in butter!!!

I've tried to make my own fried chicken and frites in tallow at home, but can't come close to what Fry the Coop is doing.

If you're like me and avoiding the very bad oils, you'll have the skip the slaw and sauces, as they're mayo based. Man, it would be so great if they were to start making those from a no-vegetable oil mayo!

Only complaint was the front doors and foyer of this particular location were absolutely filthy, when I visited. That and the bathroom should be kept a bit more sanitary. Hopefully management will see this and fix that, as these can be big turnoffs, especially when choosing an establishment in which to dine. You guys NEED to succeed!

As they grow, hopefully Fry the Coop keeps up the no-vegetable oil policy and perhaps even applies that to their sauces, sides and condiments. I hope this will be the wave of our healthy future!

Oh and... bring this to NW Indiana please, so I can stop in...

Very very very disappointed in this place now this is a place where me and my family frequently go to like literally all the time and to be fair I’ve never had problems prior to this incident other than they forget to put your sauce or items that ordered sometimes but yesterday we picked up some food to go and once we got home, the chicken as you could see on the video is gray and very old it looked like it had been cooked the day before And I have a restaurant business background, so I know what old chicken looks like anyway I took it back and explain to them how this was old chicken then a gentleman came out and said that’s not old chicken we don’t serve old chicken so I said explain this to me and he said I cannot explain it. I don’t know why it looks like that so I said it’s fine but that is old chicken and he insisted on saying it is not so I pulled out my phone to take a video and as you could see, he automatically closed the box, then offered to make a new one only after I pulled out my phone now I understand mistakes happen, but to insist on telling me that chicken is not old like I’m stupid and on top of that he has no explanation why the chicken looks like that that’s where I have a problem and on top of that once he learned, I was going to film it. He automatically closed the box. Then he went inside and brought someone else. The other person came out and said what’s going on I felt like I shouldn’t need to explain what’s going on again after all that happened but I did and he also insisted on the chicken was not old and again I asked him can you explain it and he also said no I can’t explain why it looks like that, but it does seem like it’s bad and only at that time, did he offer to make a new one I did not take the food I left very disappointed and unsatisfied with their treatment to me like I said in the beginning me and my family are regular customers but we...

I got the Chicken Sandwich, Spicy level Hot, and seasoned fries. First impression: Everything was kind of SWEET. There was way too much sugar in the chicken's spice mixture, AND it had inexplicable little sweet pickles.

Did I mention that there was a huge scoop of cole slaw ON the chicken sandwich? Like, I need a warning here, I thought I was getting Nashville Hot Chicken, they ain't doing that at Hattie B's or Prince's. Some BBQ places down south will put cole slaw on a pulled pork sandwich, disagree with that culinary choice as well, mayonnaise should always be optional.

Speaking of Hattie B's/Prince's: Where's the spice at Fry The Coop? I ordered spicy, my normal at those above mentioned restaurants, and I get a whole speech about how spicy it is. Which is fine..if it delivered. My lips were left tingling, I actually enjoyed the spice level, it was perfectly labeled as Hot, with two levels above it..but the employee shouldn't be selling it for something it's not, especially after I showed clear doubts.

Compared to the Nashville chicken places, the Hot was less spicy, but more specifically the flavor profile of the spice mixture was far less complex than Hattie's/Prince's; those places are spicy but also flavorful, and NOT sweet. Also, sour pickles please.

Everything tastes like it was fried next to donuts, but nothing as much as these limp, soggy fries; they were like little funnel cakes with liberal spice mixture seasoning all over. It was an odd...